The innovative program “Touching Art” will be the State Museum of Contemporary Art’s participation in the 1st Mediterranean Printmaking Triennale, that will take place in Rhodes from August 27 to November 2.

“Touching Art” is an international program which helps blind and visually impaired people to “feel” prints that have been rendered in relief form. That means that the outlines of the figures have been done in carton and other materials that can convey the best possible feeling of the different colors, surfaces, shapes and techniques of each artist. The captions accompanying the works are in Braille.

The initiative is part of an international program of museums worldwide, called “Art Beyond Sight.” This is the third time that Thessaloniki’s State Museum of Contemporary Art is adopting it.

The museum will participate in the Triennale’s tribute to Greek printmaking at the Rhodes Municipal Gallery, with 12 works in relief form that have been selected by the Association of Greek Printmakers. They are works by Odysseas Annitsakis, Giorgos Grekas, Dimitra Siaterli, Yiannis Stefanakis and others. The program has been jointly organized with the Ilios Foundation for the Protection of the Blind in Northern Greece and the Central Macedonian Union of the Panhellenic Association of the Visually Impaired.